Torres update: Progressing well, still some discomfort in right knee — and no timetable for his return

SAN JOSE — Yes, Raffi Torres said Sunday, his knee rehabilitation is progressing even though there are some days he still feels discomfort.

No, he added, there isn’t a target date for his return – not pre-Olympic break, post-Olympic break or otherwise.

Advertisement

“Trying to get that out of my head,” Torres said of any timetable. “Just worry about the next day and tomorrow, and hopefully wake up feeling ready to go and have another good practice. It’s when you wake up and feel a little sore that you can’t do as much.”

Torres was injured in San Jose’s first pre-season game when he collided awkwardly with Anaheim Ducks forward Emerson Etem, tearing the ACL in his right knee. The Sharks face Anaheim on Sunday night, but Etem is with the team’s development club in Norfolk.

The current regimen, Torres said, calls for two or three days of skating, then a break depending on how he feels.

“I’m feeling good, but problem is you go a little too hard and you’ll be sore for a couple of days,” he said. “Still trying to stay about 60 percent.”

Torres credited trainer Ray Tufts and strength coordinator Mike Potenza with doing “a pretty good job of keeping me motivated when I don’t want to come in and do anything.”

Sometimes, he added, “they want to strangle me and sometimes I want to strangle them, but for the most part it’s been pretty nice. So far, so good.”

There has been one silver lining on this cloud of a season for Torres.

“Over the holidays, went back home and had a couple weeks in Toronto,” he said. “Haven’t had that in about 10 or 12 years. It was nice to get in some special moments with family, but I’d rather be playing hockey at this point and save that kind of stuff for the summer.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.